Monday, 16 July 2012

China acknowledges Dalai Lama’s hold in Tibet

A historic photo taken during the young Dalai Lama's journey from Lhasa to the Indian border post of Khinzemane in Mar 1959

By Ajai Shukla

Business Standard, 16th July 12

As resentment against the Communist Party’s
iron yoke boils over in the Tibetan-inhabited areas of China, Beijing has begun
admitting that the Dalai Lama’s hold runs deep in these areas.

This is a major policy shift. Since 1959,
when the Dalai Lama escaped to political asylum in India, the Communist Party
has insisted that the Tibetans are a happy lot. The communist apparatchiks have
passed off growing public protests, like the 40 self-immolations by Tibetans in
the last four years, as the work of a few malcontents, instigated from “foreign
countries” by the “Dalai Clique”.

But, with the Communist Party’s 18th
Party Congress looming, denial is no longer an option. Acknowledging the Dalai
Lama’s widespread popularity, Party bosses in Tibet have slapped harsh
restrictions on news, media and communications, ordering that the views of the
exiled leaders views must be blocked from reaching Tibetans, particularly those
living in rural Tibet.

A fortnight ago, the Communist Party
Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Chen Quanguo, urged officials
to “make sure that the Central Party’s voices and images can be heard across
120 thousand square kilometres (of Tibet),” and that “no voices and images of
enemy forces and Dalai clique can be heard and seen.” This call was published
in an interview in the Communist Party’s official newspaper, Renming Wang on 27th June.

Tibetans face tightened controls on
internet use, text messages, phone ownership, music publishing, and
photocopying. Instead of independent news, Tibetans now get intensified
political propaganda in villages, schools, and monasteries, and sharp
restrictions on travel into the TAR.

Since Mar 12, controls have been tightened
on travel from other provinces into the TAR. Additional restrictions on travel
by foreigners to the TAR were introduced in May 2012 and again in early June.

An authoritative new report from Human
Rights Watch traces the Communist Party’s shifting stance that acknowledges the
Dalai Lama’s growing influence, especially in rural Tibet, where 85% of the
population lives.

Until 2008, Chinese officials in Lhasa
declared that Tibetans hardly supported the Dalai Lama. In 2001 an official
survey purportedly found that 86% of Lhasa’s residents regarded the “Dalai as a
separatist or a politician.” Wu Jilie, TAR’s deputy governor told foreign
journalists, “the Dalai Lama has aroused the distrust and resolute opposition
of the vast majority of people here (Reuters, 20th
Aug 04).

According to Human Rights Watch, TAR’s
Chairman said in 2007 that “the majority of Tibetan people do not want the
Dalai Lama to return to the region” and that “his influence is very limited” (Xinhua, 20th Jun 07).

The first signs of change date back to
2010, when TAR’s governor, Padma Thrinley (Baima Chiling in Chinese) declared,
“to say that the Dalai has no influence at all in Tibet is impossible… The
Dalai Lama has some influence for sure” (reported in Ifeng News, 6th Nov 10). On Mar 12, Thrinley said, “Let’s face
reality: the Dalai Lama and his followers do try to attract young Tibetans, but
what we need to do is not to compete with them … Instead, the key is to improve
people’s livelihood … the popularity of the government will depend on its work”
(Xinhua, March 7, 2012). He admitted to a
Chinese reporter that, “right now, the Dalai is indeed competing with us for
the younger generations.”

Tibetan anger is simmering not just in TAR,
but in the adjoining Tibetan-inhabited areas as well. TAR is merely the western
half of the Tibetan plateau, home to half of China’s Tibetan population, i.e.
2.9 million out of 5.7 million officially recognised ethnic Tibetans. The other
2.8 million Tibetans live on the eastern part of the Tibetan plateau, in designated
Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures (TAP), and Tibetan Autonomous Counties (TAC)
within the four provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan.

Chinese government statements that are
directed towards non-Tibetan audiences still pretend that there is widespread
Tibetan support for China’s policies. However, local articles in Tibetan areas
increasingly describe the Dalai Lama as having widespread influence. Since late
2011, official speeches throughout Tibetan areas have referred repeatedly to
campaigns directed at “the masses” or “the foundations,” rather than primarily
at monks and nuns, indicating an attempt to change the thinking of rural
Tibetans on a scale not seen since the beginning of the reform era in the
1980s.

3 comments:

SachinWRT
said...

The viability of a nation state is not at all based on military power. China lost tibet the day it invaded it. But the real question is, can PLA invent a device which can send them back into time to change the past?

China,reaches border of India, rail links from china on the step of India, Pakis using both militant as well as diplomatic strategy to bleed India......such reports have been pouring in from the last 30 years and is not new nor fictional. Yet there is a greater danger.....slow uptake from Indian administrators towards the threat, no infrastructure though repeated requests and warning of enemy closing in, sloppy response towards armament procurement,sloppy response towards war veterans, OROP, sloppy response towards the armed forces , salary wise vis a vis civilian counterpart, sloppy response towards the urgent need of trainers for the last 3DECADES, Sloppy response from the adminiustrators towards the procurement needs from the kargil review committe.

Chanelising the force made for the purpose of Chinese threat into politician's servants, commandoes from Special forces used for opening doors of politicians and babus, no proper facilities, for example after the bombay attacks, there was supposed to be a force meant for such threats to be stationed in Mumbai...they were stationed inside the gateway of India..because the babus think that security personnel are road side beggers.....and if and when an officer or jawan complaints, then such is used to strategise the lowering or using substandard personnel, so that they get less resistance for their mis use...thus no OROP, and babus thrive hard to not give due to its armed forces personnel...to make professionals leave and substitute them with substandard personnel who will do as the political and babu masters demand.

The same babu has effectively used his wisdom to not build any infrastructre be it roads, electricity, water and frustrate villages and towns and people and thus revolt.....i.e naxalites...the police force has already been mutilated by the strategies of the babus making them an incompetent force and thus army is called in....when the army gets an upper hand like in JnK, Babus , politicians will ask to revoke AFSPA....

I wonder whether I should be more afraid of China or the gluttony, unprofessionalism of the Indian Administration Services!!